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023: Building Your Tribe & Dealing with Haters with Hope Taylor

September 27, 2017

Building Your Tribe as a Photographer

Building Your Tribe

Have you begun building your tribe for your business? A tribe is a group of people who are supportive past, current and sometimes future customers that end up doing a ton of marketing FOR YOU.  For example, large brands like Apple, Nike, and Whole Foods have done well in creating fan bases that shares their enthusiasm for their favorite company and products.

By using this model, Hope Taylor has done just that with her photography business.  Through her business, she balances weddings, education and a thriving senior spokesmodel program. She has created a group of clients who are so ecstatic about her work that they can’t help but share about it. Because of this, Hope’s been able to formalize the process of getting potential clients excited about working with her.  Even better, this is before they even send their first email!

Hope is  just 21 years old. She started her business at age 16 and essentially skipped college to maintain her amazing business. In this episode, she shares tips on how to start your own tribe, how she dealt with malicious people, and why you should always be authentic in who you are. 

Hope’s Takeaways

  • When Hope decided she wanted to drop college and go full time with her photography business, a lot of people had strong opinions about her decision. Instead of worrying what everyone else thought, she sought out photographers who had been through a similar situation, and be able to give her good advice from their own experience.  
  • To quote a favorite piece of advice, photographer Mary Marantz says: “Wherever you are, be all in.”
  • Fear holds people back from marketing themselves and their personality. Hope says “I knew that if I marketed my personality, it was going to be a consistent way to separate myself from the competition.”
  • Because people love when you show your true self, you will attract clients who want to have you at their wedding because they have fallen in love with YOU and who you are. 
  • Hope shows and talks about her client’s experience a lot on social media. Because she shares her spokesmodel program, she shows a super fun an awesome tribe of people that other girls will want to be a part of. 

How Do You Start Building Your Tribe?

  • To begin, write down the things you know about your ideal client. Where do they like to shop and eat and hang out? What do they like to learn or read about? 
  • Next, write down the things about you that make you, you.  After that, take a look at your list, and your ideal client list, and find the things in common. Share about the parts of your life and personality that intersect with theirs. 
  • In closing, be yourself. Always remember, you’re just a human, and so are your clients.  

 

Connect with Hope Taylor 

Website: http://hopetaylor.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopetaylorphotography/ 

 

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